Pay Disparity In Industry - Top Ten Actress Initials

The opening of Akira has again proved how female centric films struggle for a start at the box office. Only two films Mary Kom (Priyanka Chopra) and Heroine (Kareena Kapoor) have crossed the 5 crore nett mark. The initial of these films was also not good when released but they look much better now compared to what has happened after. Heroine was 2012 and Mary Kom 2014 but with higher ticket rates the numbers of these films are not being reached.

There is always news of disparity in pay between actors and actresses in the film industry but actually its not as bad as what happens in other industries. In other places, even results may not change the disparity but in the industry results will change all. If in the list below there were films which were taking in 12 or 15 crore nett on day one, there would not be this talk of disparity. The main reason given for the disparity is the chauvinistic ways of the industry and in some ways there is chauvinistic behavior in the industry but the pay disparity is basically because of the results below. If the numbers below change, the pay disparity will also change.

Some of these films eventually put up decent lifetime numbers but that will not change the disparity in pay, it will be the opening day numbers. There is no film going close to 10 crore nett (taking real Mary Kom value) and 10 crore today is not really a good start unless its under 1500 screens. If the opening day numbers start coming in double digits then the pay cheques can also be double digits but until then its going to be a 5-6 crore cheque on a good case for actresses in the Hindi film industry.

Below are the top opening days for films with actresses as the main face value of the film. The list does not include films where the USP is sex or horror as its the genre at work there. Also does not include ensemble cast films like The Dirty Picture or Tanu Weds Manu Returns which have other known faces.

1. Mary Kom - 8,32,00,000 (1900 screens)

2. Heroine - 6,82,00,000 (2000 screens)

3. Akira - 4,75,00,000 apprx (2000 screens)

4. Neerja - 4,62,00,000 (1000 screens)

5. Jai Gangaajal - 4,48,00,000 (2500 screens)

6. Jazbaa - 3,94,00,000 (1650 screens)

7. Mardaani - 3,44,00,000 (1250 screens)

8. NH 10 - 3,26,00,000 (1000 screens)

9. No One Killed Jessca - 3,22,00,000 (950 screens)

10. Highway - 3,21,00,000 (750 screens)

Note - Mary Kom was tax free in Maharashtra on release and and adjusting the figure would give 7.43 crore as a value for the nett number. It still remains on top but with a lower gap between Heroine.

The biggest female stars of the day Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone do not have any films in the above list but if you look at the numbers of their films which were not exactly driven totally by the them as had other faces but are pretty close then they don't make good reading also. Fitoor released earlier this year had a opening day of 3.27 crore nett and Finding Fanny had 4.56 crore nett in 2014. Even putting in Piku for arguments sake makes no difference as it opened to 5.27 crore nett.